2009 Street Car Super Nationals - High Stakes & High Speed

Street Racers Head To Las Vegas For The Fame And Glory At The Street Car Super Nationals

The 2009 running of the Street Car Super Nationals was the fifth such extravaganza that has grown from a West Coast shootout to a countrywide high-stakes game of speed. The event was born from the burgeoning PSCA (Pacific Street Car Association) series that operates exclusively in the West. The PSCA boss, Mel Roth, wanted to extend the West Coast-style Street Legal Drag Racing scene to the rest of the country and he decided to throw a big bash at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He dubbed it the Street Car Super Nationals (SCSN) and the ensuing madness has grown to massive proportions, attracting racers from all over the North American continent. One look at this year's running reveals competitors from as far east as Atlanta, way north as Alaska and parts of Canada, as well as Texas and many other states in the union far and near.

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Racers and fans enjoyed a wide range of categories including several unique heads-up eliminators, index competition, and bracket racing. The heads-up classes are where most of the dramatic performances took place. The SCSN lineup includes the popular and ultra-quick Hughes Performance Pro Street, home of the quickest and fastest cars. Coby Rabon scored the top qualifying spot in his Mustang with a record-breaking 5.98 at 243 mph. He was in good company as 52 other Pro Streeters attempted to qualify for the 32-car field. Some fast cars were on the outside looking in with the bump spot set at 6.53 by Mike Bruno. Dan Vogt stood atop the field once the clutch dust settled. Accufab Outlaw 10.5 packed wild action as an eclectic mix of machines took to the strip on 10.5W tires and virtually limitless engine combinations bound only by a set of weight breaks. We saw everything from former Pro Stock entries to real street machines. The field was strung out from mid-6s to high-7s. Once the 10.5W tires stopped spinning we saw Dale Moznik holding the $10,000 winner's check.

Moving past the top two categories, the cars became more identifiable as the categories shifted to smaller tires and more stock-appearing bodies. MagnaFuel Xtreme Radial was home to quick drag radial-equipped entries as well as true 10.5-inch tires. Mike Keenan scored the top qualifying position with his '02 Camaro with a flat-out hauling 7.24 at 207 but finished runner-up as he smoked the tires against NMRA Super Street Outlaw champion John Urist in the finals. One tick behind the Xtreme Radial cars was the Mickey Thompson Wild Street; a class that reminds us of NMCA Xtreme Street but it packs a powerful punch with the quickest car belonging to Dee Pfnister who drove his '69 Camaro to a 7.78 at 181 mph for number one honors. On Sunday, David Schwartz drove his Mustang to victory over George Raygoza and his '68 Nova-Schwartz ran 8.14 to a wheelie-slowing 12.35 for Raygoza.

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Edelbrock Hot Street is reserved for naturally aspirated entries and mid-to-low 8s was the norm. Vic Brum drove his '70 Chevelle to the top spot on the ladder with an 8.26. Brum was also the only top qualifier to score a class victory out of any heads-up category at SCSN V. Caramba Tequila Limited Street ran similar times to Hot Street but the cars feature 28x10.5-inch slicks and are powered by extremely limited nitrous-oxide, single turbocharger, or centrifugal blower engine combinations. Interestingly, an import and more specifically the vaunted '93 Supra was on the top spot. Dana Westover cruised in the turbocharged import to an 8.47. But on race day, American iron ruled the roost as Mike Saiki ('68 Camaro) beat Mark Washington ('84 Mustang), 9.01 to 10.74. Ross Racing Pistons Open Comp, Calvert Racing Bracket 1, and B&M Racing Double-Index round out the index and dial-in categories available for Chevy racers. Ken Spears ('54 Chevy) beat Sergio Fellipe ('65 Ford Mustang) in Double-Index. In Bracket 1, Justin Lamb beat Mike Williams. Mike Matranga used a 10.64 on a 10.59 index to beat Michael Hadtrath who broke out with a 9.62 on a 9.63 index.

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2009 Street Car Super Nationals - High Stakes & High Speed

One of the coolest cars on the property was a '62 Chevy Impala owned, driven, and built by Mike Holdridge of The Race Shop (Seymour, WI). A 484ci small-block Chevy with Brodix heads and a pair of Precision 88mm turbochargers powers it to mid-6-second times. Holdridge worked with Pro Line's Steve Petty to help get this wild Impala down track to a new personal best of 6.50 at 221 mph.

Mike Saiki drove his '68 Camaro to victory in Limited Street thanks to a nasty 525ci engine with an Induction Solutions Widow Maker single-plate (restricted to a AN-4 feed-line as per class rules), conventional BBC heads (within 1-degree valve angle and standard port layout), and a single 4150-style carburetor. The car is both clean and very quick as he laid down an 8.48 at 164 mph during eliminations. A wheelie in the final slowed him to 9.01 but he still secured the victory.

There were several super-quick El Caminos racing and the quickest one belonged to Randy Walker. He stuffed a 762ci engine with four stages of nitrous under the hoodscoop to produce a 6.40 at 218 mph in qualifying. The team thrashed all weekend trying to coax 6.20s from their machine, which is what this car has run at other PSCA events. But in the end, a red light in round two ended their hopes at grabbing the $20K prize.

NHRA Pro Mod competitor Brad Personett brought the Big Stuff 3-sponsored '68 Camaro to Vegas for some fun in Pro Street. The team added weight and different sized Precision turbochargers in order to fit the category. It took a few runs to get the car sorted but by Sunday they had run 6.04 and went all the way to the semi-finals before the brake pedal broke off and Personett was forced to abort the run.

Mike Keenan was the top qualifier in Xtreme Drag Radial with an impressive 7.24 at 207 mph but he smoked the tires in the final and was rewarded with the runner-up cash. The Camaro is slammed to the ground thanks to a Racecraft suspension system. Powering the incredibly fast fourth-gen is a twin turbocharged 540ci mill.

The engines keep getting bigger and bigger. This year the largest beast in competition belonged to perennial Pro Street badass, Pat Musi (Carteret, NJ). He came packing 903 cubes but a broken rod during qualifying forced him to install one of the team's "small" 738ci engines to finish the weekend. Despite losing 165 ci, Musi did make it to round three in eliminations-thanks in large part to his new crew chief and multi-time Pro Mod World Champion, Rickie Smith.

We dig Armen Maghdessian's '57 Chevy Wild Street entry. A Vaca Performance-built 548ci powerplant and a shot of nitrous push this big Chevy to a best of 7.93 at 177 mph on a pair of Mickey Thompson 275 drag radials.

Dan Vogt brought his '63 Corvette from the 15th qualifying position all the way to the winner's circle. The Pro Street Vette relies on a Fulton 738ci engine with three stages of nitrous and ran a quick 6.35 at 220 mph in qualifying and used a little bit of luck and a little bit of speed to win the $20,000 prize.

Dale Moznik of Moznik Brothers Racing brought two El Caminos to action at SCSN. The blue car (pictured) was entered in Outlaw 10.5 while the team's black El Camino was competing in Pro Street. The Mozniks brought in legendary Pro Mod racer Charles Carpenter to tune both cars, which each feature a Fulton 833ci mill with four stages of nitrous. The blue ride ran 6.70s in Outlaw 10.5 and took home the $10,000 winner's check. It was Dale's second victory in SCSN Outlaw 10.5 as he won in 2007 as well.

Street Legal Drag Racing history was set on many occasions but perhaps the biggest news out of SCSN V was Larry Larson knocking off the first 6-second run in his career. The significance of his 6.96 run was that it was the first time a competitor from the Hot Rod Drag Week event had gone under 7 seconds. Once qualifying was completed, Larson loaded up and hit the road to cruise on the real Strip in Las Vegas-showing it really is a legitimate street-worthy ride.

We saw plenty of great-looking Novas at SCSN V but not many were nicer than Roger Holder's '68 Nova. It was packing a big-block Chevy that he claimed to be 396ci but we think it was slightly larger given its mid-7 capabilities. Holder went out in the early rounds but he does have two SCSN Wild Street wins to his credit.

NMCA Pro Street contender, Vinny Dimieri, made the long haul from New York with his '68 Camaro. Dimieri was packing a brand-new 820ci engine from Pat Musi Racing. The team was sorting through the power and we expect to see great things from them in 2010. Dimieri did coax a few 6.40s but went out in round two to Musi.

One of the most talked about cars in Outlaw 10.5 is NMCA racer Jim Robbins of AES Racing Engines. He shed his NMCA-legal powerplant for a larger 650ci mill due to the true outlaw nature of the SCSN. Naturally, he kept the Liberty five-speed in place. The altitude and cold weather conditions threw the team a curve with the nitrous tune-up. They still ran in the 6.70s but lost to Doug Sikora in round three.

Allen Stewart brought a little street racing flavor to Xtreme Drag Radial with his '68 Camaro. Pettis Performance built the 548ci engine and it inhales nitrous oxide. The Camaro might not be a show car but it runs 7.64 at 181 mph, so we will cut him some slack for not having paint on the car.

Jeff Andre lights the candles, as they say when the third nitrous stage is spraying and the headers produce a nice stream of flames. The '71 Camaro competes in Outlaw 10.5 with a 704ci big-block and three stages of juice from Induction Solutions.

One of the original competitors in Street Legal Drag Racing is Marc Meadors. He still competes at select events and here he is with a '69 Camaro built by Tim McAmis. The car sees action at a variety of sanctioning bodies in both Pro Mod and Pro Street categories. The Camaro goes mid-6s with its alcohol-burning BAE supercharged engine.

Vic Brum was the only number one qualifier that won a heads-up category. Brum competes with his '70 Chevelle in the naturally aspirated eliminator Hot Street. He qualified with an 8.26 and won the event with an 8.23, over an ailing Tony Aneian and his '68 Camaro.

Longtime Pro Street racer Monty Bernie attempted to qualify for the tough 32-car Pro Street field. Unfortunately, the Pro Street legend was locked out with his 6.73 at 213 mph. The team was hoping to run much quicker with its PSI-blown AJ 481X powerplant but they were sorting out several new parts including a new Leanders clutch from noted tuner Jeff Prock of Applied Nitrous Technology.

Jim Marino and Tom Hersch brought out this ultra-clean '69 Chevelle packing an AES 525ci powerplant with a few hits of nitrous. The car scooted to a best of 8.15 at 166 mph.

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